The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to utility meters and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to methods and systems of reading utility meters and methods and systems of transmitting utility meter data.
Monitoring the residential, commercial, and industrial complexes of buildings throughout the United States is performed using a variety of user equipment. Examples of such user equipment include meter reading devices that measure consumption of various utility commodities such as natural gas, electricity and water via an electrical or electro-mechanical transducer.
In urban areas, the number of meter reading devices that need to be recorded is tremendous. Although the overhead associated with sending service personnel to a desired location can be amortized by consolidation of meter reading devices at a particular location, for example, in a high-density residential development such as an apartment complex, the cost can still be significant. In rural areas, however, the cost is higher as meter reading cannot generally be amortized over a number of meter reading devices read at a single location.
Various techniques are employed by utility companies to reduce the cost of sending service personnel to a physical site. For example, a simple method is the use of stochastic techniques for extrapolating a measured quantity for a current reading from one or more past values or a moving or seasonal average. This technique is designed to reduce the frequency of meter reading.
Another technique is the use of radio-based meter reading devices. For example, each meter reading device includes a radio, the radio capable of broadcasting a meter reading to a nearby receiver. The radio based meter reading devices allow service personnel to drive near the radio meter reading device with a receiver device to read the meter. With such technology service personnel do not need to enter the property. An advantage of such a system is that, in rural areas, the time it takes service personnel to read the meters can be reduced.
For example, one system might require service personnel to physically drive by or near a collection of meter reading devices in order to communicate with the devices. The data collected in the “drive-by” would be later uploaded to a centralized data collection system.
During the last years, a number of developments have been made to facilitate utility meter reading. U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2006/0044158 describes a secure automatic meter reading (“AMR”) method and apparatus which utilizes a microprocessor and a bidirectional broadband connection to access the Internet and can form a wireless distribution network is provided. In addition to AMR, this connection and the network can provide high speed data transmission for other devices and services. As a result of the methods and apparatuses of the present inventions, legacy utility infrastructure and communications equipment can be integrated into a data transmission and collection network and remotely monitored without the costs associated with deploying service personnel or more costly equipment and services.